Day 122: Petra!
I admit it. Last night in my dusty, sweaty, frustration I recommended that I skip Petra and stay back with the kids to spare us all a repeat of Petra by Night.
Luckily Margaret disregarded that suggestion and Llewellyn made a day-saving recommendation:
Grammie’s perfect plan:
Margaret and I walk with Hessan while she, Jim and the kids would take a horse-pulled cart for a short visit to The Treasury (available only during the day, not for Petra at Night). Then she would take the kids back to the hotel for lunch and swimming.
We kicked off at 8:00am.
The kids loved the horse cart. The Bedouin drivers are trying to maximize the number of rides so they zoom down the bumpy path through the canyon.
Llewellyn got just enough touring for her then some solid grandkid time at the hotel.
Meanwhile Margaret and I got some glorious kid-free time to walk with Hessan and dive into everything that Petra has to offer.
We all met up at The Treasury.
Then Jim continued with me, Margaret and Hessan to explore more of the area including the Royal Tombs, The Great Temple and Qasr al-Bint.
Margaret and I decided to make a quick accent to Ad Deir, or The Monastery. It’s about 900 steps up and supposed to be a 90 minute round trip according to Hessan. We challenged ourselves to do it in under an hour.
We met Jim and Hessan back at lunch almost exactly 60 minutes later — tired, sweaty and expecting sore calves in the morning. It’s a solid workout and, like the rest of Petra, absolutely worth the effort.
Lunch was average at best. There is one restaurant down inside Petra we found ourselves fighting for space at a not-so-appetizing buffet with about 150 other tourists.
And there was no beer.
Margaret, Jim and I made our way back up the hill to the hotel and went straight to the bar. I then met Llewellyn and the kids at the pool.
Somehow the day wasn’t over yet. We had a fun dinner at Petra Kitchen, a cooking class + restaurant combo. There were 20 – 25 of us, split into a few small groups, matched with a chef and then given a few simple responsibilities for cooking the meal. It was really good food. We sat with a nice woman from Seattle and her 98 year old wheel-chaired mother in law. And I was complaining about carrying James at Petra by Night!
Upon returning to the hotel we stopped by the sand art guy in the lobby and Willa and James got a Petra souviner. Took him about 5 minutes to make this:
Final thoughts on Petra:
Petra is pretty incredible. Several times today I found myself imagining what life must have been like in this city 2500 (not a typo) years ago. It’s just such a unique and visually stunning place.
Unfortunately, those daydreams would often be interrupted by a herd of tourists, a pile of litter, an aggressive shop owner pushing made-in-China trinkets or a donkey / horse / camel being abused by its owner. It just feels a little lawless and disorganized, which is a shame. The Jordanian government needs to take a page out of Peru’s Machu Picchu book.
Bottom line: Petra is a must-see if you’re in the Middle East and could still be so much better if the site was managed effectively. Get on that King Abdullah II!
